Sacrifice
by Austin Blake
Summary: Part 5 of my A/C series. ("Vision Girl," "The God That Failed," "Drowning," "Breathe.") Wesley returns, as does someone else, and Angel and Cordelia learn of a new arrivial...


DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Other people's. Duh.  
DEDICATION: Angel/Cordelia shippers. And Rae, who has so lovingly and graciously taken time out of her busy schedules to read and review my stories in hopes that perhaps a new Angel/Faith one is up. She won't go unsatisfied for long. *wink*  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Part Five of my A/C series (called Redemption Found), a follow-up to "Vision Girl," "The God That Failed," "Drowning," and "Breathe." My version of Connor is just that: my version. Pretend Holtz died in the darkest of all dark dimensions, 'kay?  
  
  
  
SACRIFICE  
  
  
"No."  
  
Gunn sighed exasperatedly, trying to convince the former vampire to go along with his plan. "Angel, we need to find out what's going on. No one just walks in and does something good for us. That NEVER happens. Something's going down, and someone wants you human for some obviously sinister reason, and he's the man to go to to find out why."  
  
Angel's eyes narrowed. Even after his epiphany on the rooftop and his discovery about where his anger was truly directed, he was still stubborn when it came to...him. "No. We're not calling him."  
  
Gunn's own eyes blazed with defiance, not about to back down to a man just because he employed him. "You're right. We're not going to. I am." As he reached for the phone, Angel's hand clamped down on his wrist. He looked down at Angel's hand, all humor gone from his face. He spoke in a calm, but sincerely warning tone. "Take your hand off me."  
  
Cordelia saw the brawl about to ensue and laid her hand on Angel's, slowly removing it so she could hold it. She brought it to her her lips, kissing it lightly to calm him down. "Angel, you and Wesley need to work things out. Gunn's right, something is going on here. And as much as love you human - and believe me, I do..."  
  
Gunn sighed again, rolling his eyes. "I think we all know. I lost six hours of sleep knowing. Two more if you count the nightmares."  
  
Cordelia glared at him with an icy look at his sarcastic interruption, then continued. "As much of a reward you think this humanity is, it still doesn't present itself as a reward. I mean, it does reek of evil undertones."  
  
"They want him human so he can't get Connor back."  
  
All eyes went to the front door of the Hyperion Hotel, following the gruff, scratchy voice that answered their question. Gunn's eyes relaxed, a ghost of a smile calming his composure. Cordelia's eyes widened, as she was unsure of how to react. Angel's face stood still as stone, his eyes penetrating through the invader's very soul with a frigidity that rivaled the Antarctic. For there stood Wesley Wyndham-Price.  
  
"Who invited you into the conversation?" Angel responded to his presense with hostility, shifting all of his weight onto the balls of his feet so he would be able to better lunge at him.  
  
Wesley swallowed a lump in his throat. He deserved every bit of venom they could throw at him, he knew that. But sometimes, enough was enough. He knew his reasons for doing what he did. He was doing what he thought was right, and repenting for that felt wrong. "Fred did. She called me about a half hour ago." He started down the steps, but was wary of Angel's looks and slowed his pace. "I'll need to research it further, but I'm willing to make an educated guess and say that they want you to die trying to get Connor back. They, being Wolfram and Hart, of course." He walked past his old office, seeing that Angel's things had been moved back in. He glanced over at Cordelia, who was eyeing the long wound over his throat. "They figure that if you're willing to use dark magic once, you'll do it again. You'll pay any price to get your son back."  
  
Wesley resisted adding the words, "including sacrifice a friend," for he knew the animosity in the room was great enough as it was. Angel looked down for a moment in thought, his granite composure softening for a moment. "Is there...a way?"  
  
Wesley was silent for a moment. "Yes. There is. But no human could possibly live through it."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Angel..." Cordelia said, clutching his hand tighter. She didn't want to lose him. Not now. Not after all they had together.  
  
"What is it?" Angel repeated, paying no mind to Cordelia's warning use of his name. If there was some way to bring Connor back, then he had to try.  
  
Wesley steeled himself. "I cannot in good conscience allow you to-"  
  
"Good conscience?" Angel said, a wild look overtaking his eyes.  
  
"Here we go." Gunn said, crossing his arms to observe in silence.  
  
"Good conscience?" Angel reiterated, coming face to face with Wesley so quickly that they wondered if he really was human now. "You son of a bitch...how dare you. How...dare...you...you took my son. You stole him from me. It's because of you that he's there, suffering in that God forsaken place."  
  
Wesley faltered, stammering. "The p-prophecy clearly-"  
  
"Damn the prophecy!" Angel shouted, glaring down at the former Watcher. "You could have told me! I had the right to know that I might be the cause of my own son's death! You took matters into your own hands and you stole my son from me!" In a fit of anger, Angel's fist met Wesley's nose, sending his head rocking back and his body to the floor. The wound on his throat was reopened a bit, and blood trickled down from his neck and his broken nose. Cold brown eyes met the Watcher's from above him. "You hear me, you bastard...you stole my son. YOU STOLE MY SON!" Angel's hand clenched around the collar of Wesley's shirt, lifting him up to a standing position. Angel brought him close - very close - to his face, almost growling as he spoke in a low, demanding voice. "You stole him...you get him back." As he let Wesley go, he touched his injured neck, fighting to breathe properly.  
  
"I already tried." he rasped.  
  
Angel stared at him. "What?"  
  
"I already tried...last night..." Wesley looked to the floor, and Angel looked on in bewilderment as a tear fell from the Watcher's eyes. "The ritual, it called for a sacrifice."  
  
"What kind of sacrifice?" Cordelia asked, amazed herself at Wesley's emotions.  
  
"A child for a child." Wesley kept his eyes cast down, as silence filled the desecrated halls of the Hyperion. "She was sickly, prematurely born...she was going to die in two weeks anyway. But God help me, Angel...I swore I heard her scream. God help me...I can still hear it."  
  
Angel choked back the sea of emotions he was feeling. Anger. Love. Sadness. Pity. Wesley did it for him, because he wanted to be redeemed, he wanted the family to be reunited. But what could have possessed this man to follow through with killing an infant? Angel knew the guilt, the utter horror Wesley had to be going through. He may never recover from his actions. "Did it..?"  
  
Wesley shook his head in silence. "He wasn't there, Angel. His life force, it was gone. The baby, she...died for nothing." Wesley broke into quiet sobs, falling into Angel's arms. He was met with those same arms embracing him, closing around him, trying to comfort him.  
  
"Connor's dead." Those were the only words Angel said, and the only words needed to be said. Angel and Wesley held each other, and in the process forgiving each other. Gunn's hand slipped into Cordelia's, who had started crying inaudiably. Lorne and Fred came down the stairs cautiously, seeing the scene unfold with confusion.  
  
"Did you guys work things out?" she asked meekly.  
  
Four pairs of eyes looked at her in silent remembrance of the lost infant before Angel finally let go of Wesley, straining to hold back his tears. "Fred, there's something we need to tell you."  
-----  
  
The night air in the cemetary was as still as the bodies that the sacred ground held within it's confines. And in Los Angeles, what isn't disturbed soon will be.  
  
A brilliant flash of light exploded from the midst of nowhere, hovering in the air right above the resting places of L.A.'s elite. The vortex swirled and teemed with temporal energy, the sinister glow intensifying as a single form was thrust from the bowels of the hell that was the portal's origin. The body soared through the air, landing with a hard resounding thud against a nearby headstone. It's momentum gave it enough force to break the top half of the granite memorial off, and it slumped to the ground, defeated.  
  
Suddenly, it's head darted upwards, wild blue eyes somewhat reminiscent of his long-dead mother belonging to that of a boy no more than seventeen years of age. The eyes shined with supernal ability hidden within as he glanced about im an almost paranoid fashion, wary of his surroundings. After nearly two decades of mind-numbing, body-ripping torment and agony, it was a wonder he was alive at all, much less strong enough to walk. But rise to his feet he did, his legs and lower torso encased in a tanned leather-like material, but the lack of cows in the dimension he was in hinted that he did what it took to survive. Not thinking that the shined green and orange skins of the demons he killed were not suitable for wear, he began a slow, paced walk, scanning every inch of his environment.  
  
Although how he survived such a place for so long would be a mystery to most, he thought nothing of it. He was too preoccupied with finding warmth. Not the physical sense of warmth, but the feeling...the affection, caring, love...all these he felt nearby, and was drawn to them like a moth to a flame. He followed his senses to a street sign with letters engraved on it. Losing interest in it since he couldn't read it, he continued on down the paved asphalt. He managed to climb the steps of a nearby hotel before his legs finally gave out, weary from his travel. He collapsed on the porch, his eyes closing as he let out a suffered groan, slipping off into unconsciousness at the Hyperion Hotel's doorstep."  
-----  
  
Cordelia held Angel close as they sat on his bed, kissing the side of his neck softly. He hadn't broken down and cried yet, and she didn't know if that was healthy or not. But still she held him, closing her eyes as his lips brushed over the mark on her neck: his mark. She kissed his cheek lightly, summoning the courage to break the silence. "Angel, I'm pregnant."  
  
It took a while for the impact of her words to fully penetrate Angel's grief. He withdrew from her arms slowly, looking at her in awe. "What? H-How?"  
  
"Well, I think it started when you went down-"  
  
"I know how..." Angel said, smiling ever so slightly. "But how do you know...so soon?"  
  
Cordelia smirked. "I sang for Lorne. He read me. We're going to have a baby girl."  
  
"But why did you..?"  
  
"Because you didn't use protection." Cordelia said, laying back on the mattress. "The last time I did that, I craved human blood. So I wanted to be sure this time. Luckily for me, this one grows at a normal pace."  
  
Angel smiled a bit, but his smile quickly dissipated. Cordelia sat up, noticing his blank stare at the carpet. It was one of the major signs of brooding, a trait she hoped had left with his vampirism. "What's the matter?"  
  
"Wesley. " he said quietly. Cordelia understood, nudging her cheek softly into his. "I never would have thought him capable of such a thing. And yet he did it. For me. For us. He knew how much I loved Connor, how much we all loved him, and he took a life trying to get him back for us."  
  
"He loves Connor too." Cordelia said, kissing him gently. "He was trying to do what was best for him, both when he took him, and when he tried to get him back. Both times, it backfired, and both times, he was condemned for it. But the last one got him condemned by a higher power."  
  
Angel was silent for a while, before finally lifting his gaze to Cordela. "I would have done the same thing. That's what scares me."  
  
"I know." Cordelia kissed him again before laying back down on the bed. "You're a good person, Angel. Go talk to him. You have a better understanding of each other now. I just wish you could have found it on better circumstances."  
  
Angel nodded, silently standing and walking out of his room to talk to Wesley.  
-----  
  
(More coming later...) 


End file.
